In a conventional elevator system, when a maintenance person on a car performs maintenance work for a device provided at the top of a hoistway, counterweight block means is connected to an upper portion of a plunger of a counterweight buffer. Then, a counterweight is lowered to abut against the counterweight block means to compress the counterweight buffer. As a result, a lowered position of the counterweight is restricted to be higher than that without using the counterweight block means, thereby allowing a work space between the car and a ceiling of the hoistway to be sufficiently ensured (for example, see Patent Document 1).    Patent Document 1: JP 2000-327239 A